Due to the female anatomy, urine flow is controlled primarily through gravity and, unlike males, cannot be directed. This leads to difficulty controlling urine flow when women are faced with situations where toilet seats are either unavailable or undesirable for use. For example, when hiking or backpacking, a toilet seat is usually unavailable. A woman must lower her clothing, exposing much of her lower body to the outdoor elements, squat while holding the clothing, and simply hope that when the urine flows, it does not hit her clothing or shoes. Even after taking all precautions, there is no guarantee that clothing or shoes will not get wet with urine since the direction of the flow cannot be controlled. This is also the case with young girls who are unaccustomed to going to the bathroom without a toilet seat. Emergency stops along the road to go to the bathroom can be very difficult for women and girls (and their parents or caretakers) given the uncertainty in urine flow direction.
Women also are faced with situations when an available toilet seat is undesirable to sit on, such as in public restrooms, unisex restrooms, porta-potties, airplanes, tour buses, trains, and so on. These toilets are often dirty or otherwise in an unsanitary condition and women do not want to put their legs in contact with the toilet seat. To avoid sitting on an unsanitary toilet seat, women must pull down clothing and squat, holding themselves up over the toilet without touching any part of their legs to the toilet seat or rim. While maintaining this awkward and difficult squatting position, women must release their bladder muscles and hope that the urine stream will reach the toilet bowl without hitting the toilet seat, toilet rim, their legs, clothes and/or the bathroom floor. It is difficult for women to partially squat and release urine at the same time. The leg muscles are unaccustomed to holding a woman's body in place while squatting in a backwards direction with the width of the leg separation limited by pulled down clothing such as pants and underwear. It is a balancing act and can be very stressful if urine flows onto the woman's body or clothes.
In addition, while toilet seats are common in the United States, many cultures in other countries do not customarily build bathrooms designed for women and/or do not have toilet seats installed in bathrooms. Most women have encountered bathrooms while traveling outside of the United States that are designed for the male anatomy in the sense that the urine is to be directed towards a target—whether the target is a urinal or a hole in the floor over which a woman must straddle. Without the natural ability to direct urine flow, these types of bathrooms present similar problems for women—they are forced to remove or pull down clothing, straddle a target that is usually placed in front of them, and release their bladder muscles without knowing where the flow of urine will be directed other than in a generally downward direction, controlled by gravity alone.
There also are instances when a woman may not be physically comfortable, or physically able, to sit on a toilet seat, such as following surgery. Examples include hip injury, post hip surgery, arthritis, or any condition causing pain or discomfort to a woman if she has to bend into a squatting or sitting position. It is also awkward and difficult for women to provide urine samples in a medical setting since the woman must hold a cup underneath her vulva and over the toilet bowl hoping that the urine stream will find its way into the cup and not elsewhere.
Situations where toilet seats are not available or in an undesirable/unsanitary condition are often accompanied by a confounding problem of a lack of toilet paper with which to wipe the vulva when finished urinating. Given the female anatomy, women are unable to tap the last drops of urine from their vulva and must instead use something to wipe the residual moisture away. If toilet paper is unavailable, a woman must let the urine be absorbed into the underwear leaving an uncomfortable sensation of moisture.
There are female, urination aids and devices in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,408,703 and 5,742,948, both to Cicio, disclose a disposable funnel made of water absorbent paper. The Cicio funnel can be folded flat for storage by means of two opposed creases that define the tapered vertical front and back profiles of the funnel. To use it, pressure is applied to the creases to flex open the funnel. Use of the Cicio funnel is tricky. The funnel must be held by a user around its exterior and pressure must be carefully maintained across the creases to flex and keep the device open during use. The urine flow must be carefully directed into the funnel opening, since the Cicio funnel absorbs urine it can collapse. Further, the changes in weight due to variable urine flow requires a very deft amount of flex pressure on the creases to keep the funnel uniformly open. Further, if it leaks and/or overflows, the user's hand will get wet with urine. The device is also designed to absorb the urine flow, leaving a wet funnel when finished.
Accordingly, there is an unmet need for a disposable female urination device to direct urine which is both sufficiently waterproof and absorbent to serve the dual purposes of directing the urine flow while protecting the user's hand from contact with urine, on the one hand, and thereafter being used to wipe the vulva in lieu of toilet paper, on the other hand, and is simple and comfortable to use by an adult woman, girl, or the caretaker of a girl in a variety of conditions and situations where toilet seats are unavailable or unsuitable.